1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber ribbon including a plurality of optical fibers which are joined in parallel and relates to an optical fiber cable and a wire configuration which include the optical fiber ribbons.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2007-178883, a conventionally proposed optical fiber ribbon includes a plurality of optical fibers which are joined in parallel. In such an optical fiber ribbon, the plurality of optical fibers, which are arranged in parallel, are coated with a tape material (a coating material). Each optical fiber includes a bare optical fiber coated with an ultraviolet curing resin. The bare optical fiber is composed of a core and a cladding. Such an optical fiber is also called as an optical fiber element.
In such an optical fiber ribbon, in order to identify each of optical fibers constituting the optical fiber ribbon, the surfaces of the optical fibers are individually colored in different colors. Otherwise, optical fibers constituting an optical fiber ribbon may be differently marked to be identified.
Alternatively, such optical fibers can be identified also by coloring or marking the surfaces of the coating materials coating the individual optical fibers.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2004-012680 describes a configuration in which the surfaces of optical fibers are colored by coating the surfaces of the optical fibers with transparent color layers.